The present invention relates generally to the field of data processing and more particularly to the field of automated data retrieval in a computer system.
In a computerized data processing environment, the storage and retrieval of data records according to their time and date of creation has conventionally required detailed knowledge of those various dates and times by a system user who desires to locate, reference, or retrieve a particular data record. A well-known system in which this problem occurs is a hospital computer system which stores a variety of patient data records, many having been created at different dates and times. For example, when a patient is admitted to a hospital, a physician customarily writes an admission report. Similarly, upon the patient""s discharge, a discharge report is written for the patient""s file. These reports are typically recorded electronically as data records in a Hospital Information System (HIS) or a separate Admit, Discharge, and Transfer (ADT) System. In addition to these admission and discharge reports, there are often medical tests, observations, findings, or results regarding the patient under study, and all of these may be created at different dates and times.
Retrieving records created on a particular date or in conjunction with a particular event (e.g., the patient""s admission to the hospital) is difficult, if not impossible, when there is no facility for identifying records with the date of creation or with an event with which the record is associated.
Moreover, data records are often of the same data type (e.g., electrocardiogram, or xe2x80x9cecgxe2x80x9d, report), but are recorded at different times throughout the duration of the patient""s stay in the hospital. Thus, there is the additional problem of distinguishing among records of the same type which are created at different times. Identifying the earliest record of a particular type for a particular patient becomes an acute problem when file naming conventions do not allow for any identification of the time and date of record creation.
A further problem of record identification occurs when one patient report (or equivalently, the electronic record embodying the report) includes references to other reports on the same patient. Often, an admission report or similar report will be written to include direct references to other reports made on the patient. For example, an admission report will typically refer to reports that are made contemporaneously with the patient""s admission to the hospital. An admission report may refer to the admission ecg or other types of reports commonly made at the time of admission. Similarly to admission reports, discharge reports and other report types often refer to medical information collected and recorded at various specific times. Examples include the xe2x80x9cdischarge ecg,xe2x80x9d the xe2x80x9cadmission ecg,xe2x80x9d the xe2x80x9cprevious discharge ecg,xe2x80x9d or some other ecg described by a temporal word or phrase (collectively, xe2x80x9ctemporal descriptorsxe2x80x9d) that can convey to the reader when the ecg was recorded and, indirectly, the reason it was recorded.
To uniquely and unambiguously identify a particular report (data record) by reference, the physician typically would have to refer to it by the specific date and time it was made. For example, an ecg report made at the time of admission must be specifically referred to by the date and time of admission. This requires a level of detail beyond what is typically immediately available to a physician. Alternatively, a temporal descriptor may be employed to serve as a shorthand designation for a particular record.
For example, xe2x80x9cadmission ecgxe2x80x9d may be used to refer to that report instead of the date and time of its creation. Likewise, xe2x80x9ccurrent,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9cadmission, xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9cdischargexe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cpriorxe2x80x9d are temporal descriptors which can uniquely identify a particular record from a group of records of the same type.
The use of such temporal descriptors can advantageously provide inherently greater meaning for the reader than the simple admission date and time. Such temporal descriptors are easily understood by medical staff or other reader. However, the use of these temporal descriptors in conjunction with computer systems that are used to store these records may lead to imprecision and uncertainty. Some types of records may be created several times during the day of admission or discharge, each being based on a separate set of observations. Thus, xe2x80x9cadmission ecgxe2x80x9d may ambiguously refer to one or more of a number of ecg reports made on a patient at or near the time of his admission to the hospital. Accordingly, a selection must be made to accurately select the correct record or group of records from a set of the same type of records.
More particularly, and as a further example, an ecg may be recorded on a patient in the emergency room an hour before the patient was technically admitted into the hospital, yet this ecg may still be referred to as the xe2x80x9cadmission ecgxe2x80x9d as opposed to one recorded 3 hours after the admission is officially recorded by the ADT system. In the case of a laboratory test there may be a requirement that to be called an admission laboratory test, that it must have been recorded within 2 hours of the time of admission. This is because values of such a test may change quickly and a value beyond the specified time range may not be relevant to the patient""s condition upon admission. On the other hand, for a catheterization procedure, the requirement may be that it be recorded within 8 hours before or after the time of admission, as any catheterization procedure in that time range may be acceptable to be referred to as the admission catheterization.
It may also be desirable to take additional steps for specific types of records, for example, to give extra priority to records stored after the time of admission instead of those prior to the admission time in the case where more than one of the same type of record was stored within the allowed time range.
The foregoing use of temporal descriptors does not pose a significant problem for the human reader, who can interpret the temporal descriptors and locate the referenced record on his own. But, with the advent of interconnected computer systems storing a variety of records and with the advent of Internet/Intranet technologies with universal display, retrieval and interactive xe2x80x9cbrowserxe2x80x9d programs, it is now possible to create medical records that contain hyperlinks to various other stored records. By activating a hyperlink, a desired record is sought to be retrieved from a database server and sent to the requesting client terminal for display. To activate a hyperlink to records described by a temporal descriptor, there must be a means to select the record or group of records referred to by the temporal descriptor. This means should be capable of being executed at the time a record is retrieved, or alternatively soon after the time the report that contains the hyperlink to a record is created.
In accordance with the foregoing and other objects, there is provided a computer system characterized by one or more data record input devices, which may be workstations or data entry terminals that permit users to create data records and retrieve data records from the system. The computer system is further characterized by at least one database for storing data records entered by users of the system, and these databases may be physically separate from or integral with the workstations or terminals of the system.
There is further provided means interoperable with the workstations for creating data records that contain temporal descriptors of a predetermined character. These temporal descriptors are included within references to other records stored, or to be stored, on the system. The data record creation means comprises a processor and associated software governing the type and format of records to be created by the users and controlling the storage and retrieval of data records under the direction of the user.
The invention further provides means for selecting the data records referred to by the temporal descriptors from among a set of data records of the same type. The selecting means comprises a list of various record types stored on databases in the hospital. For each record type, there is provided an associated list of temporal descriptors which may be used to identify and refer to data records of that particular type. For each such temporal descriptor, there is specified one or more date and time ranges defining the limits of the creation dates and times of records called for by the temporal descriptor. There is also provided one or more instructions for selecting records when none of the existing data records satisfy the aforesaid date and time range.